User menu

Search form

Main menu

Take A Tour Of Crying Souls Hospital With Author Linda Wisdom

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 12:11pm — admin

This month paranormal author Linda Wisdom treats readers to another tale of sexy demons in A Demon Does it Better. Heroine Lili, a powerful witch and healer, takes a job at Crying Souls Hospital to hunt for a patient that went missing, never guessing that it will catapult her into an adventure filled with danger, intrigue and one very hunky demon named Jared. Today the author takes us through the front doors of Crying Souls Hospital for a look at what a magical place this really is.

Thank you Morgan at RT Book Reviews for having me here! When Morgan asked me to give a guided tour of Crying Souls I thought "how cool!" Turns out it’s not as easy as it sounds.

I see the hospital inside my head as a 3-D building. Too bad I can’t just download it to my computer. :) So I’ll do the best I can to show you what the hospital is like.

***

“You’re all going to die!” The un-named vulture that perched over the hospital entrance flapped his wings and craned his head, snapping his beak at all who approached the gothic-style building.

Hm, hospital designed to keep you alive and a vulture designed to want you dead and rotting.

I vote for the hospital.

Crying Souls has actually been in existence since the 1500s, first based outside of olde London then moving to the California coast a couple hundred years ago.

Just remember that not everyone here likes mundanes. Muggles to Harry Potter fans. Namely those who don’t have magick in their blood.

As you can tell by looking at the sanatorium you are seeing a four-story sprawling building that looks as if it popped out of a Boris Karloff horror movie. While Crying Souls is in San Francisco, the building looks as if it would be more comfortable in merry olde England. Stone exterior with a strange black moss creeping up the sides and the vulture waiting for his next meal. Just remember one thing. Looks are deceiving.

Or are they?

Don’t continue to think you’re the star in a B horror movie where a deranged medical professional might pounce out of the shadows. Although you still might want to be aware of your surroundings. Anything can happen.

The hospital interior is very modern. It is well lit; the nurses wear colorful scrubs, doctors with their lab coats even if a few might tend to be furry or sport scales. And if you catch a hint of sulfur it’s due to Director of Nursing Arementha Garrish, a dragon shifter. She rules over her nurses with an iron tail. As one who worked under her, I should know. Our head of the hospital is Dr. Mortimer. A wizard of undeterminable age who some think is more like a mad scientist.

The ER isn’t like the one at your hospital. One wall reveals portals that deliver emergencies faster than any ambulance. Even the pharmacy, manned by a cranky gnome who dispenses potions or tisanes that always include a spell as accompaniment, can be an eye opener for the uninitiated.

Here you will see creatures you thought only existed in fairy tales or those odd books you might find in a musty old bookshop. There might be a troll waiting to be treated for injuries after a bridge mishap. A gnome with a bad sunburn. Then there’s the Fooz who looks like a gelatinous mass that oozes over the gurney and drips down. The doctors play wand, scroll, scalpel to see who gets that patient. We won’t even talk what the place is like on a full moon. Some Weres tend to party way too much. It’s the variety that pleases Lili since she never knows what will show up next. Many patients that show up aren’t what you’d see in your everyday ER. But then, neither are the nurses and doctors. Whatever you do, don’t call Deisphe, the WereLeopard nurse a pretty kitty. Not if you want to keep your head.

Since even preternatural creatures can also require medical treatment we’ll find the floors divided for those with dangerous illnesses, namely anything where the patient might explode, contagious diseases, a pediatric ward where you’ll find Lil’s cat Cleo entertaining the younglings with tales from her youth. Luckily, she keeps them G-rated. My advice is you stay away from the maternity ward. If you think hormonal mundane woman are scary, think about a female bloater that pops out (literally) a hundred or so baby bloaters and part of the birthing process involves singing at a key that can shatter eardrums.

And yes, that is not an illusion floating through the halls but a ghost. Many of the nurses didn’t want to leave the hospital and enjoy hanging around to view modern medicine and sometimes manage to make their opinions known. The interesting part is seeing the different in nursing uniforms through the centuries.

Oh wait, don’t go near those stairs! You really don’t want to go below. Actually, you wouldn’t be able to get too far. There’s a very large and heavy door that seals off the asylum from the hospital. The reason given is to protect the innocent from the dangerous patients locked down in the asylum.

This part of the hospital is only open to Dr. Mortimer, the head of the hospital, two nasty ogres named Turtifo and Coing who believe their job is to keep the patients in line by any means possible, and Lili, who’s new to the ward.

It’s something you’d only think you’d see a horror movie. While magick powers modern conveniences for the staff, the patients live in stone cells with iron doors. No real beds, food, well, don’t even think what it might be, and treatment is out of the Dark Ages. Rumors are that the patients’ families pay large sums to keep them there. But one cell houses a patient that intrigues Lili and she intends to find out just what goes on with Patient 1172, aka Jared.

Now, who would like to go up to Pediatrics and eavesdrop on Cleo? Sometimes she forgets she’s speaking to younglings and you just might get some useful advice for your love life.

And ignore the vulture on your way out.

Just because he says we’re all going to die doesn’t mean it’s happening today.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Subscribe to RT

Get RT’s latest news and book picks, plus information on contests, videos and convention updates delivered to your inbox every month! By clicking "subscribe" you will be subscribed using the email address associated with your RT account.

E-mail *

March Ratings

Download the ratings for all the new books reviewed in the March issue, conveniently formatted on easily printable pages.